There was all kinds of good-natured ribbing going on between Lasorda and Dodgers players. Matt Kemp gave him style advice. Don Mattingly delicately implied that you pretty much can’t tell Lasorda anything he doesn’t want to hear. And, best of all, Bruce Bochy suggested that Lasorda actually be allowed to manage the game because Bochy would “outsmart him.”

I watched the game and listened to the Tommy sound bites throughout Divorce Court’s mashing of the G-men. But the real highlight of the evening was Scully reminiscing. He mentioned that the Giants could find themselves watching the Snakes celebrate the div championship in front of them, and then went into a story about the field and clubhouse scenes after Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world.

Listening to Scully in moments like this is like listening to music — a Bach Partita, for instance. He painted word pictures of the scene on the field (where fans were allowed to storm the field after the game was decided) and in the respective clubhouses, separated by a thin wall. He concluded with a recount of a conversation between Reese and Robinson in the trainer’s room of the Dodger clubhouse.

The Giants were now changing pitchers and Scully gently finished the story as they went to commercial. And I realized: this is no longer a baseball game. It is Art. Makes you feel bad for all the other baseball broadcast voices out there: they must feel like so many Salieris to this Mozart.

The main reason I watch Dodger games is Vin Scully, the man is a treasure. Last night there was a trivia item, the answer to which was Hank Aaron of the ’63 Atlanta Braves and Willie Mays of the ’66 SF Giants. I was dumbfounded, I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Vin must’ve had a long tiring season to forget the Braves didn’t leave Milwaukee til after the 65 season.
Took me 50+ years to find out he’s mortal. Kinda wish I hadn’t tuned in last night.

Was anyone watching that Fox broadcast (I think it was last year) when they had Reggie and Lasorda on, and they go into it? That was the best in-game guest segment I’ve ever seen. They really went after each other, it was great.

The best part was that Reggie said he had called Lasorda a few weeks before to get tickets to a game, and Lasorda’s answering machine said “… and if you don’t bleed Dodger Blue, you might not get into heaven.”

I was at a Giants game in 2006(?) when the Dodgers clinched the division in SF. All the dodgers players mobbed each other in the center of the infield… Lasorda walked out in between home and the mound, and, with the mob of bums celebrating behind him, turned around and did a slow clap in front of all the Giants fans. What a great baseball hero/villain/mascot.

* Tommy Lasorda, the tournament’s official mascot, held court during batting practice with several Japanese players. Ichiro Suzuki stopped by and spoke passable English with Lasorda, who in turn spoke passable English with Suzuki. Ichiro kept pointing to Lasorda’s circumferentially-challenged midsection and saying, “How many months?” Clearly unfamiliar with certain idioms, Lasorda answered, “I’m 82 years old.”